Meet Me at the Altar

Prologue

“If you can’t follow my rules, you can get the hell out of my house!” Leon shouted, walking into Andrès’s room.

“Don’t worry. You ain’t gotta tell me twice!” Andrès jerked his closet door open and grabbed several pairs of jeans, shirts, and shoes, and shoved them in different duffel bags on his bed.

“Drè, where are you going?” his mother asked, following him back into his closet.

“Mama, don’t worry ’bout me. I’m good.” He mumbled through clenched teeth as he grabbed more clothes and threw them into another duffel bag.

His mother watched in dismay as she realized that her son was serious.

Nicole Porter knew that with his stubborn ways and impatience, much like his father’s, it wouldn’t be easy to calm him down and ignore Leon.

Nothing short of an apology would do, and her husband was just too prideful to ever issue an apology to anyone, but still she had to try.

“Leon’s just talking because he’s upset, that’s all. He doesn’t mean it. Leon, please tell him that you don’t mean it,” Nicole pleaded, spinning around to confront her husband.

Andrès grabbed a smaller bag and tossed grooming items and cologne inside of it as his mother and her husband argued.

“I meant every word I said. Since he’s got all this bravado and mouth, let’s see what he can do.

I’m not raising no grown-ass nigga in my house.

Out there smoking and running wild around the streets like he ain’t got no home training.

Coming in my house at any time of the night.

He can’t even keep a job!” Leon shouted.

Andrès threw his bags on his shoulders and grabbed the others in his hands before he spun around to glare at his stepfather. “Nigga, first, let’s be clear: You ain’t raise me. Your ass came up in here when I was fifteen. My daddy did all the damn raising that I needed.”

He stormed out of the room and down the stairs, with his mother and Leon hot on his heels.

“Andrès, please don’t leave,” his mother pleaded as he stepped onto the front porch.

“No! Let his ass leave; he’s grown. Let’s see him take care of himself now. I guarantee that he’ll be back here within a couple of weeks.”

“Mama, I suggest you start planning that nigga’s funeral.”

“You fucking threatening me?” Leon shouted, stepping closer to Andrès as Nicole threw herself between the two angry men in her life.

“I don’t wanna disrespect you, but you’d better get out of my face right now,” Andrès warned.

“What you gon’ do?” Leon shouted back.

“Leon, stop! You’re antagonizing him,” Nicole declared, pushing her husband slightly.

Despite his anger, Leon did exactly as his wife asked, but Andrès never moved an inch. She turned back to Andrès and attempted to reason with him. “Baby, please, just calm down. You should sleep it off tonight, and I’m sure that cooler heads will prevail in the morning.”

“Mama, I don’t belong here. I haven’t for a long time, and we both know that. Truthfully, I should have gone to live with Daddy when he first left.”

Andrès could see the sting of hurt in his mother’s eyes, but they both knew he spoke the truth.

“That would have been an even bigger mistake. Your daddy wasn’t shit.” Leon goaded.

Andrès rushed Leon as his mother jumped in the way again. He easily shoved his mother aside and drew back his fist. Just as he pulled forward to hit Leon in the mouth, a tiny hand grabbed his arm, and a soft voice pleaded, “Drè, don’t! It’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.”

It was only because of her that Andrès dropped his arm. He stood panting as he stared at the man in front of him. “Nigga, you lucky tonight. If it weren’t for these two women saving your ass, I would’ve beaten the shit out of you.”

“Get out!” Leon shouted.

“Drè!” Kalliope Robinson, his neighbor and best friend, shouted when Andrès made another lunge at him, but Leon jumped back. “Yeah, like I thought.”

“Andrès.” Nicole called out again as he ran down the steps with Kalliope right behind him.

When his mother grabbed his arm, he spun around and hugged her close to him. “I love you, Ma. I’ma be alright. Go inside. It’s cold out here.”

“Please, baby, don’t leave. Where are you gonna go?”

“I’ll figure it out. I promise I’ll be okay.”

“But how?”

“I’ma drive to California, take in the countryside along the way. Go out there with Daddy.”

“Really?” He could hear the hurt in her tone.

“I gotta do what’s best for me now, Mama. He’s been asking me to come out there and stay for a while, get a fresh start. I’ll be okay. I’m twenty-one. It’s time for me to go out and make my way anyway. I need some time to get on my feet, but I’ll be good.”

His mother cried in his arms, and they both ignored Leon shouting, “Nicole, get in this house!”

“You wanna go with me?” Andrès asked.

She pulled back and shook her head. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she replied, “No, baby. This is home. You two don’t have a good relationship, but he’s good to me.”

As much as he wanted to, Andrès couldn’t argue with that. Leon treated his mother good, but the two men hadn’t gotten along very well for a while.

“Go in the house, Ma. I t’s cold out here. I love you.” He kissed her forehead, and she kissed his cheeks and forehead in return.

“I love you too, baby. Please be safe and call me.”

“I will.”

He turned away and walked to his car, with Kalliope walking beside him. When they were out of earshot, and he had opened the trunk of his car to throw his bags inside, she asked, “What happened?”

“Same shit. He’s pissed about me not coming in until two this morning. Pissed about me smoking weed. Pissed about learning I was fired from the construction site.”

“You knew he’d find out.”

“I was looking for another job.”

His company had conducted random drug tests, and he had failed, which led to him being fired.

“What are you going to do?”

“Head to California with my dad. He’s been telling me to come out there.”

“What? You didn’t tell me.”

“I wasn’t considering it until now.”

“You can’t go, Drè. You can’t leave me.” Kalliope shrieked as tears flooded her eyes.

“I’ll be back, shorty. I need to get my life in order, anyway.”

“Please don’t leave me. Take me with you,” she begged.

It tore him apart to see her crying, especially over him. She was too good, and he did need to get his life together. It was a constant series of partying, smoking, and random girls.

“You know that I can’t take you. Your daddy would put a bullet in my ass if I even considered it. You’re his baby, and he ain’t playing about you like that. I’m not leaving you, baby girl. I’m leaving Cherokee Springs to get my shit together.”

“Nooo.” Kalliope sobbed so deeply that he felt his heart was being snatched out of his chest. It was unfair. Why did life have to be so screwed up?

“Listen, stop. Don’t make this harder for me than it already is,” he pleaded, grabbing her by her shoulders and dipping his head to meet her gaze.

“I can’t be without you. You’re my rock and my best friend.”

“I know, and you’re the same for me. I see your little boyfriend over there watching us. What are you doing out this late, anyway?”

“It’s only ten. We just got back from a date.” She sniffed and wiped her nose with her arm.

“You’d better go inside. He’s waiting for you.”

“I can’t breathe, Drè.” She sobbed brokenly, and he pulled her into his arms and held her close.

Just as her heart was being shattered into a thousand pieces, so was his. She was his everything. He loved Kalliope and not just as his best friend the way that she thought. He had never told her how he felt because he knew he wasn’t ready to take care of her the way that she deserved.

Andrès reached around her neck while she held him and removed the chain that rested there. When he pulled back, he removed the onyx ring that he wore on his pinky finger.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he removed the heart on her chain and placed his ring on there instead.

“I’ll be back for you. I don’t know if it will be in a couple years or five. But I promise that in ten years, if that nigga over there or some other knucklehead ain’t gave you his last name, I’m coming back to marry you, Kalli.”

She giggled and wiped her tears. “I’m trying to be serious, Drè.”

He lifted her chin, kissed her forehead, and then stared into her eyes. “So am I. Dead ass. Promise me that.”

“What?”

“That in ten years, if you’re not married and neither am I, we will marry each other.”

“Do you realize what you’re saying, Drè?”

“I know exactly what I’m saying. I’m telling the girl, who I have silently loved all this time, that one day, I’ll make her mine. Promise me. Ten years, Kalli.”

“You love me?”

“Always have.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It doesn’t matter now. I’m not ready to take care of you or your heart the way you deserve. I need to straighten some shit out, and I’ll be back. Promise me that you’ll be ready for me.”

She nodded with a wobbly smile. “Okay. Ten years. I’ll hold you to it, Drè.”

“Bet.” He leaned in, brushed his lips against hers, and then stepped back.

Her mouth dropped open, and she gasped. He saw her boyfriend take a step off the porch onto the top step, but he knew that nigga wouldn’t do shit.

“My heart.” She pointed at the heart in his palm that he removed from her locket.

“Is mine for safekeeping. You take my ring as a vow that I’ll be back, and I’ll keep your heart with me. It’s always been mine, Kalli. You just never knew it.”

He hopped in the car as Kalliope moved to the side, and he pulled away.

He watched her in his rearview mirror until he couldn’t see her anymore.

Kalliope stood at the end of his mother’s driveway, waving at him, and watching him take her heart, literally and metaphorically, with him.